Old Man Lyons and His Cow

Many years ago, Paul Lyons lived a quiet life in a remote cabin in the rugged area now known as Mohican State Forest with his wife and son. He hunted, fished, and earned extra money by working at local farms or logging. Some legends say that his cow did not return to the barn one night during a storm. He called for her, his lantern in hand, to light the meager path. But the raucous clatter of rain hitting the autumn tree canopy above him and the wind blowing up through the valley below seemed to drown out the ting-ting of her cowbell. Still, at times, he could hear the faint ringing. He found himself along the cliff edge too late at some point along the trail. He lost his footing and fell to his death. On moonless nights, you can still hear him calling that cow and see his lantern waving above the cliff.

As with folklore, with the telling, sometimes a story gets skewed along the way. That said, the written historical account paints a different picture of his death and one no less tragical for our ghostly tale. Around 1856, Paul Lyons was hauling logs one day. He met a gruesome accident that resulted in his death and a grisly aftermath. Mister Lyons was first buried on the hill between two waterfalls- Big Lyon Falls and Little Lyon Falls. A marker once showed his grave. Then, later, a physician exhumed, stole, and mounted the skeleton of the poor man for display in his office. All that remains today is a depression in the earth. The light still shines along the hillside, and sometimes the man’s ghost still shows, most likely poor Mister Lyons, looking for his corpse!

Parking/Trailhead

Parking/Trailhead:

Park Road
Perrysville, Ohio 44864
(40.613150, -82.316760)

The Hike: 2.2 miles, moderate. Loop. Start at the covered bridge (Black dot on map, bottom right) and continue northwest on Trail G (Lyon’s Fall Trail). It is found at a large kiosk with LYONS FALL TRAIL. The path is marked with signs along the route to guide hikers. Hikers will pass Big Lyons Falls then Little Lyons Falls. Continue along the trail to the Pleasant Hill Dam. Hikers will follow a series of steps leading downward on the dam and into the spillway which will lead to a path (Pleasant Hill Lake Trail) paralleling, to the right, the Clear Fork of the Mohican and back to the parking and covered bridge.

Mohican State Park: Lyons Falls